What are backlinks | TribeLocal

answers the Quora questions

What are backlinks and how can they help boost my business?

Backlinks, and especially White Hat Backlinks, have been a constant thorn in the side of any SEO professional. From Neil Patel to Brian Dean, everyone stresses on the fact that they are both extremely hard to crack, but are extremely important if you want to promote your website and get to the top of Google rankings. Here, we try to do the same by answering all of the general questions surrounding the topic and especially the questions that are present on Quora so that by the time you finish reading this, you can understand, What are backlinks and how can they help boost my business?

1. What is the ideal location of anchor text in a guest post?

Anchor texts are one of the best ways to optimize your SEO content. Although it is a fairly old concept, many internet marketers have no idea how to optimize them or use them. Anchor texts are basically links added to a word, meaning clicking on the word will allow you to get to the website of the linking page. It is a common practice really, but how do you go about it?

The answer is extremely clear, use relevant keywords and add links to them. And make sure that if it is a guest blog, all the more reason to add more keywords. As for the placement, I would suggest that placing it wherever necessary would do. It does not do well to add too many links, and it won’t do you any good to overstuff your content with links and keywords. Moderation is required and some clever thinking.

The “Web design by” link on a client site does not seem to do much more than what it is saying. Honestly, there have been no real results, such as a rise in ranking, due to this.
The reason being, it is just there, as a footer. It may help the person looking for a good web designer, as someone pointed out here already. Apart from that, it does not really bring anything much. It is true, as suggested by Matthias Hager that such footers are basically used by the small sized business. A known brand will not have such information.

3. Does having a backlink in the Author Bio section of a Guest Post serve any SEO advantage?

Guest blogs are a big thing, and we are all going crazy over the multitude of the benefits received from the guest blogging. The profits and benefits to be gained out of guest blogging will never run out, and they are good for SEO, so who can blame us for being crazy over them?

The adding a backlink to your author Bio section will be a good practice for your SEO and blogs. The more guest posts you post, the more links you get. This is again, is good for adding anchor texts to your blogs. Anchor texts are known to boost your rankings and offer your website more traffic. This is what an anchor text looks like:

However, it must be remembered that you do not simply overload your pages with backlinks and anchor texts. Furthermore, guest blogs should be posted because you want to post them, and they have relevant information on whatever topic you write on. This should not be done merely for the sake of getting more links for your page.
There is no denying that links matter to your content’s SEO and guest blogs are what get them to you in no time.

4. What are other types of backlinks there?

Link-building forms a crucial part of your SEO and page optimization. Backlinks are basically words or phrases or URLs which link the user or the reader to any other website. There are many kinds of backlinks, apart from the two basic kinds- nofollow and dofollow.

Here is a list of various kinds of backlinks:

Directory links: This serves as a catalogue of products or services for those who require them. Furthermore, these links may be subscription based links as well. The best advice for getting the best directory links for your web pages would be to find an authoritative niche directory.

Editorial links: Add links to credible and trusted websites to your content. The reason for this is simple, these websites are highly recommended and trusted, which is why adding them will give your page a better and higher ranking.

Blog Comment Links: Although quite old-fashioned now, these links still offer some benefits to your website. Commenting on some other blog, with relevant information would be a good idea. Paste your website’s or page’s a link there and wait for it generates traffic. This is a common practice.

Along with this, one can use guest posts to generate backlinks and use infographics.

5. How can I create strong backlinks to my website?

Backlinks are an amazing way to generate more traffic and get more hits. However, this easy task is not as easy as it seems. The guest blogs offer great ways of creating backlinks, but not all websites allow you to post direct links!

The best way to go about backlinks would be by:

Making your own mistakes and learning from them. Do not look for answers from others. Conduct experiments and look what works for you.

Keep posting. If you have a new website, it is obvious that you will not have backlinks right away. So be patient, continue with your good work. Keep writing and looking for new ways to generate effective backlinks.

Exploit the guest blogs options. It is true that not all options will offer your work some value but the majority of them will.

What not to do?

With backlinks, it is easy to get misguided, and it is easy to slip if you need links and are impatient. Here is what you need to stay away from:

Avoid links where the content is too thin or irrelevant. Google devalues such websites and will not rank your website for the best results.

Another thing to remember and to avoid would be to keep away from websites which do not offer relevant information. Such websites often give misleading information, and Google views them as a bad link to your website. Adding them would automatically degrade your website and its quality and its ranks.

Following the above-mentioned guidelines would get you what you need out of your backlinks!

6. What are the off-page activities for a local SEO?

We are all familiar with online SEO and its effects on your website. However, offline SEO seems to confuse most people. Offline SEO is a method used for local optimization. A good offline SEO will get your website better rankings on SERPs (search engine results page).

The offline SEO work can be defined as the work done with the tags, titles and building the quality of the links you use on the website. Here is what you can do to improve the offline local SEO:

Social Media Links and pages: social media engagement has a massive effect on your website and gives you access to larger crowds without many problems. Along with this, these pages attract users from different areas.

Forums: Participate in various forums, which offer you the opportunity to write and submit some articles. These forums offer incredible traffic when done correctly. With addition to this, these are good for backlinks, which not only get you more viewers but also get you a good rank on Google.

Blog Directory: Trying to get the correct rank on Google with the help of backlinks? Directory links are the best way to generate traffic. Ditch the generic directories and add links to specific services and products directories, related to your topic for best results.

Q&A: Question and answer websites offer your website benefits along the same lines as forums. With related and relevant answers and links, you can generate good traffic without making any changes in your blog or writing. This is a great opportunity for those who work on informative ideas.

Videos and Infographics: There is nothing better than what pleases the eyes. Driven by human nature, all us are bound to follow what is visually appealing. Offer your viewers videos and infographics to catch your viewers’ attention.

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Local SEO software for improving local visibility

7. What is competitor's Link Building Strategy? How do I know?

While it is important to have a strong link building strategy, one can also find competitor’s backlinks as well. With a few tools available, one can find everything there is to your competitor’s link building strategies.

Moz’s Open Site Explorer is one of the most sought-after tools that help you gain all the details that you need about your competitor’s backlink profile. It comes with a 30-day trial.

Ahref is another tool that can help you with the backlink profile information. It comes with a 14-day trial. You can also use Majestic.

8. How do I get Good Volume of daily traffic for my New Blog through Off-page SEO?

If you already have a published blog and it is doing well, there is nothing for you to worry about. The best thing for you to do would be to add a few backlinks to the old blog and direct the traffic to your newer blog.

This is easy and will be most convenient for you. Additionally, you’ll get more backlinks! Apart from this, you could use other methods such as various offline SEO strategies, which would get you the desired traffic for your blog.

Offline SEO strategies or methods you could use for your new blog:

Link building with the help of credible websites (recognized by Google) for better search ranks.

Backlinks with the help of various guest blogs.

Traffic generation from forum submission, article submission, etc.

Social media engagement.

Paid advertising for your blog.

Apart from this, the SEO (on-page) optimization should not be ignored. Offline SEO optimization will do your blog no good unless you have a sturdy on page optimization in place. Focus on both on-page as well as off-page optimization for your links. Since you already have a blog, it may not be too big of a problem for you and your new blog.

9. How do I do an effective link building campaign for the Local Business website?

A link building campaign for a Local Business website can be described as setting up and looking for various links that can be used to promote your business and its rankings.

To optimize your small-scale or large-scale local business here is what you can do:

Focus on local organic results. These results will get you the traffic you need from your local area. Along with this, it will offer better SERPs for your business. This can be attained by optimizing various on-page aspects of your website.

Always remember to target your local areas. Links which are irrelevant to the majority of your viewers is something which will make you lose your ranks and traffic. Research and set a target audience, and create links according to their requirements for optimum results.

Finding link targets is another important aspect of your website’s link building campaign. Try to create content which is accepted by the viewers and is interesting to them. Try to offer some content along the following lines:
News
Funny Articles
Controversial Articles
Data Visualisation Gimmicks
Competition and
Long-form, detailed content

Offer information that is useful for the locals of your area.

Since your business is to be optimized according to the local area, make sure the content is directed to the target audience. Generic matter along with generic information will not allow your business or the website to grow.

10. What is a good link building strategy for a local business website?

Linking building is an immensely popular strategy to get better ranks and more traffic. The link building for your website will be usually done with help for anchor texts, as they are the most effective kind of link building tactics. However, there are other tactics for you to try.

Strategies for a good link building strategy:

Anchor texts: These are words, phrases or simple URLs which take the viewer to another website once they click on the link. These links could be of guest blog posts made by you, or to other websites which offer solid information.

Use credible source for your website content for good ranks.

For the local targeted audience, it is better for you to create target-specific links and information. Keep the content healthy, creative and interesting.

Along with this, use backlinks to local bloggers and websites, for a better result.